Brickbat: Compassionate Cops

The Evans family had just gotten back from the hospital, where their two-month-old son had died of a respiratory infection. That's when West Valley, Utah, cops showed up. Officials say it is routine for them to investigate any "unattended death." But the child's grandfather told them them to leave the family alone. That didn't sit well with the cops, who proceeded to knock down the door, pepper spray family members, shove them around, and arrest the baby's father for assaulting an officer when he tried to defend his family.

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I can only assume your response is due to your uncle also being a violent, needy, emotionally undeveloped man-child who physically abuses you for failing to cater sufficiently to his ego. it doesn’t matter what car he drives or what he does for a living, spam-bot, you don’t have to live like this.

It seems like it wasn’t “the cops” who showed up, it was one lone officer according to the story. Unless and until you’re in those shoes, one lone brave officer facing down a whole family of murderers so monstrously depraved that they kill sweet innocent little babies, you have no right to talk. You weren’t there, you don’t know what happened, you don’t know what it’s like to put your life on the line every single day just to protect and serve a public undeserving and unappreciative of your sacrifice. Plus, when you’re getting beaten and pepper-sprayed by armed intruders in your house, it takes your mind off your dead baby so it’s really like the cops were doing them a kindness in their time of sorrow.

“The incident that prompted this complaint came to our attention through our own internal review process. West Valley City Police supervisors regularly review actions taken by our officers, including things such as, response to resistance and forced entry. It was during one of these standard reviews that we became aware of this incident. The incident did pose concern for us and prompted us to immediately launch an internal investigation. That investigation is currently underway. While this investigation is occurring, the involved officer has been placed in a modified assignment where he has no contact with the public.

The West Valley City Police Department is committed to gaining a full understanding of this incident, how it happened, why it happened and how we can ensure that only the highest levels of professionalism are displayed by West Valley City Police Officers.”

The “incident” being the failure to erase home security footage. That behavior can’t be tolerated.

Does the “modified assignment” involve being locked in a shipping container that’s slowly filling up with sand? Because that seems like the best possible fit for this officer’s inclinations and proclivities.

I get confused easily. The article says that the baby died on the second visit to the hospital. The article says that the officer was investigating a unattended death. So why was the officer at the family home instead of at the hospital where the poor child was left unattended to die? GPS failure? The lawyer should be researching how much insurance the hospital carries, as well as the police.

If the department is smart, they’ll go limp on the officers and say their actions were outside of policy. That way they avoid the bulk of the liability. They’ll still be on the hook for failure to train/supervise.

Huh. Looked up a weird two-word term on Wikipedia. Perhaps the West Valley PD should take a look:

A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries a search warrant cannot be issued in aid of civil process.

Jurisdictions that respect the rule of law and a right to privacy constrain police powers, and typically require search warrants or an equivalent procedure for searches police conducted in the course of a criminal investigation. The laws usually make an exception for hot pursuit: a police officer following a criminal who has fled the scene of a crime has the right to enter a property where the criminal has sought shelter. This contrasts with authoritarian regimes, where police typically can search property and people without having to provide justification or secure court permission.

Not allowing a cop to be a cop is indeed severe punishment. Most cops have their entire personal identity wrapped up into their job. They live to work. Strutting around with the power to do whatever they want to whomever they want without consequence is what they live for. Take that away and they are nothing.

Eh, I don’t know if I agree completely. I think that probably would apply to this particular cop, and a great many others, but lumping all police officers into that category seems a bit collectivist. I’ve personally known cops who are good people, and whom I doubt would do something like this. The biggest problem is that individuals are rarely ever held accountable in that profession because the standard for criminal behavior is set so ridiculously high with cops.

Like some other professions, they need to clean house. There’s plenty of cops who do great work so long as they’re assigned actual crimes to fight, and don’t raise too much a public stink about their misbehaving colleagues. In an imperfect world, given the options, I’m glad we have this kind of cop. The other kind, not so much.

Truth be told, it’s amazing that more people don’t know this, nor that it ever comes up in gun control arguments.

The founders didn’t enshrine the 2nd Amendment because hunting was a much more important source of food back then for most people, nor because of high crime rates, etc. They did it because, just like what spurred the 4th, 5th, and even 1st Amendments, they had RECENTLY lived under a repressive colonial government.

People who talk crap like, “Daily life was different 200 years ago,” miss the point that oppressive government officials existed back then and still exist today. If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, my guess is “leaders” who lord it over everyone around them “for their own good” is the world’s second oldest profession.